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Topic: Exhaust crack at muffler joint <HELP> (Read 2085 times)

Hi everyone, long time no post, i picked up my RE C5 military UCE engine back in Oct'12 been running strong except for a few issues, about 1800 miles in i had a catastrophic muffler crack (see pictures shown)

from the bottom up

brought it back to the Phoenix RE dealer (Victory BMW, which i advise anyone in the area to not go to!) they replaced under warranty the muffler portion and told me i was good to go. I carried on riding fine until this morning 2700miles. where the same thing happened again, i called up the dealer again and they said that they would 'take a look at it' later in the week, essentially blowing me off, telling me that its okay to ride it like that, and it shouldnt be a issue.. well ITS A G-Damn ISSUE! I have been debating just going for a D&D exhaust as many have [it looks good and sounds nice!] I am hoping to just gather opinions on what may be the cause of this bizarre break/leak as i would hate to spend close to $400 on D&D only to have the same issue happen.

heres the new crack that i have this morning

and again from the underside

Any and all help, suggestions, comments. I know i have not been a super active member here, but its been going so smooth up until this point. Im just so fed up with the dealer not knowing squat about RE's Its like bringing a android phone to the iStore and asking for help, they are flat out clueless!

Go ahead and take it in to the dealer. He should replace the silencer (again) free of charge.

In the meantime riding the bike should not damage the engine. It will have less leakage than it would if you put an aftermarket silencer on it and so far the ECU has proven to be able to adjust to the increased flow those silencers provide.

Right on, i have off work friday, so im going to bring it back in to them (how long it takes to get a replacement muffler is another story) but, i was going to still think about the D&D system after the fact. It just seems so silly, i use the RE for minimal use, and have had so many non-common issues happen with it. Thanks for the advice Arizoni! i hope to one day be very well versed myself and confident with repairs and maintenance. not sure what part of AZ your at, but theres a pretty fun group on Meetup.com that meets every now and then (AZ Cafe Racers) i have yet to see another RE, but its been fun going to the events still! Have a great night/day and ill keep the thread posted on the outcome!

Good morning! The stock muffler might be of questionable quality, but this is the first time I hear about a stock EFI muffler crack like this. Could it be there is something wrong with the assembly of the muffler and/or manifold to the bike? Either by assembly error or maybe slight misalignment of the mounting points, causing twisting of the unit to some degree and probably too much stress on the muffler?

I saw one crack like this. It's either a bad unit, brackets were loose, or something was badly aligned. No matter what it should fall on the dealer. If the dealer doesn't want to replace it call CMW directly.

wo in a row is a pretty good indication hat something is crooked. When you get the new muffler, loosen all the the attaching hardware so the whole assembly just kinda floats. Then reassemble the pipe and muffler, then retighten the attaching hardware. That should relieve the stress. I agree, I would call CMW and see if you can get the muffler sent to you, since the dealer is in no rush.Bare

Rather than frinkeling with it I suggest that when it is taken into the dealer some words might be said that politely say, "Since this happened before and now it's happened again it looks like something must be out of alignment and needs adjusting.My friends on the USA Royal Enfield website suggested loosening the exhaust pipe at the engine but that will damage the seal there. Maybe this time you could order a new seal so you can realign everything so it doesn't break again?"

If a polite suggestion like this is made, it would be interesting to see how the dealer reacts and to see if he follows thru on the suggestion so the problem doesn't come up again.

Sorry to see your problem there mate, exactly the same thing happened to my g5 at about 6000 km. I was running the shockers (stock) at the hardest setting and i think that contributed.Hope you have a better experience then I did with the warranty, when I took mine to the aust importer he didn't want to know about it. So I took it off gave it a grind and a mate welded it back together,since then no worries and the bikes approaching 12000km. Must send away for the efi one of these days. Goodluck. Dave

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"Glorious,stirring sight! The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! ... O bliss ! O poop poop ! Oh my! Oh my!" - Toad of Toad Hall.

if your in a position to buy a new muffler and can afford to toss this one - buy yourself the hitchcock's efi unit.it sound great and looks the part and you will be 100% happy i know i am and plenty more happy users on this forum

+1 same thing happened to me in the same spot.I've been working on getting a warranty replacement but things have gotten a bit complicated.In the mean time my dealer was nice enough to give me a old muffler form an iron barrel out of his scrap pile and i modified a bracket to get it to fit. I also had the split one welded.

+1, there are lots of aftermarket options. If you want to just get on with riding, any Emgo aftermarket muffler that's big enough to get over the pipe can be purchased for about $70. I have the reverse cone (the slightly shorter one, they make 2) and it came with an all steel baffle, clamp, and reducers to fit the pipe. It sounds about like the stock muffler but looks nicer IMO.http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/forum/index.php/topic,15416.msg165766.html#msg165766

So its been over a week, i gave a call in to check on the status of the bike (been in the shop there since Friday 3rd.) I get told "not to be a asshole, but calling here isnt going to get the bike fixed faster"... After that i still asked to be xferd to the service desk, the guy tells me that he thinks he saw a royal enfield box that was exhaust sized. And that hell have the guy working my order keep me in touch.

I've tried my best to be ultra nice to them, but I'm getting worried that my bike is not getting any of the care that it should. All it ever seems to be is a bandaid over the problem and want me out the door. I still hope it can be done by this weekend as it'll be two weeks since I've been able to ride. (My RE is main mode of transport)

By the way, not only was the muffler cracked, but also the joint from the head to downpipe. Right where the pipe bolts to the head.

Oh and during all this the regulator rectifier blew. So that's on order from them as well.. all under 3k miles on a low miles commuter bike. Not sure how I feel at the moment. I just want to ride.. (Safely) again.

I'll post another update once I finally get the bike back.. its been so long.